Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of preparation of comestible products, and more particularly pertains to a packaging arrangement for frozen comestibles which allows the products to be heated therein in such a manner that the resultant products have a deep fried appearance and texture.
Frozen comestible products, such as frozen fish, chicken, french fries etc., are often provided on disposable trays formed of sheet aluminum, plastic, or paper pulp materials. Unfortunately, many of these trays have little utility outside the scope of a shipping and/or marketing container, and necessitate the transfer of the products to other vessels for reheating and/or cooking.
It has long been an object in the processed food arts to develop a frozen comestible product which may be heated in an oven, and results in an appetizing product having a deep fried appearance and texture with proper moisture content. The prior art recognizes that a product of that nature cannot be obtained simply by reheating a frozen product at a given temperature for a sufficient period of time. The achievement of a uniformly deep fried quality and appearance for the crust and texture of the comestible has been one of the most difficult problems in this art. Reheating a frozen food or comestible in a typical baking pan operates to transfer heat to the product mainly by conduction from the pan which often results in localized burns in surface areas of the comestible. Further, products which are reheated or cooked from a frozen state often have overcooked surface areas and/or undercooked interior portions. Also many comestible products currently on the market result in a final product which is dry but not crispy, with those properties often being the result of nonuniform and inefficient heat transfer to the product during preparation in an oven. Another common problem in the technology of preparation of foods from frozen comestibles is the product ion of a soggy final product, or technically a food product having too high a moisture content.
It is well recognized in the art that the aesthetic appearance of a frozen comestible is extremely important in offering a product having significant consumer appeal. Customers are less likely to purchase a product having an initial shelf appearance which is aesthetically unpleasing, and also are less likely to repurchase a product which does not have a pleasing appearance after preparation in an oven.
Patent application Ser. No. 928,345, filed July 28, 1978, now abandoned for Simulation of Deep Fat Fried Foods discloses a process for simulating the taste and texture of freshly deep fat fried comestibles by heating frozen food products on a heat transferring utensil such as a screen or grid having a plurality of open spaces and a minimum amount of contact with the frozen food products. The heat transferring utensil supports the discrete comestible pieces in an oven, while minimizing the effect of conductive heating and maximizing the effect of convective heating thereon. A preferred embodiment disclosed therein is a single layer indented and perforated heat transferring tray having indentations therein creating a waffling effect in the form of troughs and crests. The perforation are of two types. A first kind of perforations provides a large amount of open area so as to optimize heat transferance by convection and radiation, while simultaneously providing minimum contact between the food and the tray. The second type of perforations are pinlike in nature and create a surface tension on the heat transferring apparatus which collects and holds oils released by the comestibles during heating thereof. Another embodiment disclosed therein, relates to a cooking utensil for supporting and cooking foods within an oven. In this embodiment, rather than designing the heat transferring utensil with a narrow thickness, it has a broad thickness with long tapered holes. The tapered holes are stated to create a higher velocity of warm air than would ordinarily occur with holes in a thin body such as sheet metal tray. The beneficial effect of the higher velocity warm air jets lies in their increased ability to convectively heat the comestible products.